An ad hoc wireless communications network may be a communications network that communicates wirelessly without the assistance of a wired infrastructure. Furthermore, communication nodes in an ad hoc wireless communications network may communicate directly without needing to communicate through an intermediary wireless communication node. An ad hoc wireless communications system may be thought of as a distributed system. The elimination of the need for a wired infrastructure and intermediaries may enable rapid and inexpensive deployments of ad hoc wireless communications networks. For example, ad hoc wireless communications networks compliant with the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (“IEEE”) technical standards entitled “Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems—Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements—Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (“MAC”) and Physical Layer (“PHY”) Specifications” (referred to as IEEE standard 802.11, which is incorporated herein by reference) may be brought rapidly into service without requiring a large investment in infrastructure.
A large number of communication devices operating in an ad hoc wireless communications network may be mobile in nature, meaning that the communication devices may be powered by a battery. Therefore, power consumption may be an item of importance. A communication device with high power consumption may have an abbreviated operating period before requiring that the battery be recharged or replaced. Otherwise, the communication device may require a large battery that may reduce the mobility and practicality of the communication device itself. In addition to implementing power saving features in the communication device, such as low power electronics, shutting down inactive portions of the communication device, improving communication device efficiency, and so forth, it would be beneficial to implement power saving techniques in the data transmissions of the ad hoc wireless communications network itself.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method for power saving transmission in wireless communications networks.